This One's on Me
by dashingrogue
Summary: There's a little bit of dialogue in the first game in which Ashley invites you for a drink to celebrate Armistice Day. I think it was a great opportunity for a cutscene, a side mission, something. I was disappointed. So here's where my imagination went. One Shot.


_**I don't own Mass Effect.  
EA does and I can never forgive them for it.  
**_

* * *

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams took the last, hearty gulp of her beer and set down the tin can she'd been drinking out of. In technical terms, it was referred to as the 'Standard Alliance Liquid Container', but it was really just the only crap the Alliance wanted to give to a council ship.

She looked up at Commander Shepard who was frowning down at her cup.

"Chief," Shepard began, "is it just me or is this the lousiest excuse for beer in the galaxy?"

Ashley snickered. "Well, it's definitely not what I'd call first rate. Ma'am."

Shepard smiled, leaning back in her seat. She knew Ash wasn't one to confuse who was in charge. Sure, she was one of the strongest most outspoken people the Commander had ever met, but she was also a hard ass about protocol. Maybe a little too much so for the mood Shepard was in at the moment.

"I think I'm gonna turn in, Commander," Williams started to stand, but the commander grunted disapprovingly.

"You've only had one drink, Chief. That's weak. I know it tastes like shit but, if you invite somebody to drink, you may as well stay and chat. Sit. Chat."

Ashley smirked. "Is that an order, Commander?"

Shepard bit back a smile and nodded at the seat across from hers. She could see the chief hesitate for a fraction of a second, deliberating, and then she slid into the chair.

"Alright, Shepard, you're right: I invited you here. So, what do you want to 'chat' about?" Ashley wouldn't admit it right then and there but she was glad Shepard had insisted on her staying. What, with all the aliens on board, they were the only girls around, besides the doc.

She could use a friend, and besides, if the commander was so willing to leave rank out of the equation, why shouldn't she be?

"Tell me about yourself."

"Well, there's not much to tell. I signed up for the military right out of high school and… things kind of just flowed from there."

Alexis could see her drinking buddy was going to need a bit more encouragement. "Why'd you want to join?"

"Runs in the family, I guess," Williams replied with a shrug. "My dad served in space. I grew up on Earth, though. I kind of had a hand in raising my three sisters."

Shepard cocked her head to one side. "What was that like?"

And that was the trigger.

Ash had a story for every sibling, every occasion: birthday, Christmas, school dance. She talked until Shepard knew the description of each Williams's sister in detail and even got around to talking about herself after a little while. It was obvious that she'd needed this downtime, a break from duty.

Even so, she had her limits.

"Alright, Shepard, I've shared all my dark secrets. And I think all of my family's, too." Williams stared at the contents of her cup, trying to remember how many servings she'd had.

"What, no more?" Shepard had long since discarded her liquid container and commenced drinking straight from the bottle.

Ashley frowned. "Oh, no, I think I've embarrassed myself way more than necessary. It's your turn. Out with it."

"Out with what?"

"Your secrets!"

Alexis rolled her green eyes. "I don't have any secrets."

"Puh-lease, everybody has secrets," Ash scoffed at her friend.

"Not me," Shepard winked. "When you're in the spotlight as much as I am, everything's kind of just out in the open. Commander Alexis Shepard, first human Spectre… that pretty much sums me up in a nutshell."

"Fine then," Ashley rolled her eyes this time, smirking at Shepard's sarcasm. "It doesn't _have _to be a secret. Just… something. Like your family. You know all about mine, what about yours?"

There was a pause. It wasn't a particularly long pause, but it was long enough for Ashley to think she'd asked the wrong question. She cleared her throat, trying to smooth things over.

"Sorry if I overstepped my boundaries, ma'am."

"What?" Shepard looked up as if she'd just remembered she wasn't alone. "No, I... I just haven't thought about them in a while. My family, I mean."

Ashley was confused. "Ma'am?"

"Relax, Ash, you're not out of line."

Her gunnery chief's shoulders loosened a bit. "So…"

Shepard raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Your family," Ashley elaborated, "what were they like?"

"Oh. Well, I guess, you know, I had a good family. Nice. Big. My parents were farmers. Had some friends. Small town, not much to do." Shepard avoided all the details, deliberately. She was debating whether or not she should tell Ashley anything at all, a bit surprised she didn't already know. It wasn't something she talked about often, or at all, for that matter. That wasn't to say she didn't think about it now and again but, either way, she approached the topic… delicately. Yeah, that was the word. Delicately.

"So you were a colonist?" Williams' brow was furrowed in confusion.

"Yeah, yeah I was."

"Oh. Anywhere I've heard of?"

Shepard shrugged. "Mindoir ring any bells?"

A beat. An intake of breath. And then silence.

There was always silence.

Usually, she'd just wait it out and then chuckle to herself when the other person, some clueless nobody, realized their blunder and apologized, not really sure whether they were apologizing for bringing it up or apologizing for what had happened and if it was the latter that just made it even more funny because it wasn't like there was anything they could have done about it.

But now, she didn't wait it out. She didn't laugh, either. Maybe it was because she was buzzed, not drunk, yet – it was very nearly impossible to get drunk off this stuff unless you were the lightest of lightweights, which she most definitely was not which was a very good thing, in this instance, since she couldn't just sleep it off the next morning – but she was pretty sure it was because she liked Ashley. It was because Ashley wasn't some clueless nobody. She was her teammate, someone Alexis wanted to get to know better. Someone she considered a friend.

Even if she gave her that look of pity like everyone else, she could forgive her for it because it wasn't really her fault that that was the only way she knew how to respond. Maybe she'd even like her for it because it was just further evidence that she had a heart, a big, smart-mouthed, opinionated, pain in the ass, lovable heart.

She'd decided.

"There were, uh, five of us: my older brother, me, the twins – boys – and Mia, the youngest. I was sixteen," she couldn't help but smirk, marveling at how young, how very young, she'd been. "It was three days before my birthday, actually."

She glanced up at Ash to see how she was doing. Not good. Okay, keep going.

"Long story short, I'm the last one. The twins died in captivity and I found Mia but she… she didn't last long. My parents and my grandfather died during the attack and I… well, here I am."

Still no response.

Okay, she could stand to say a little more. She was surprised at how well she was doing, mentally patting herself on the back.

"I'd always planned on taking up the family trade and farming but I signed on with the Alliance instead to… well, to make the galaxy a better place. You know, 'one bad guy at a time'." She thought about winking for that last part but decided it would be too much and make her seem like even more of a sad, nerdy, orphaned freak trying too hard to make light of something serious.

She looked back up from the bottle – she'd been envisioning little figure eights on it – expecting to see that look of pity in her friend's sad brown eyes, steeling herself against it since she'd already decided she'd forgive it.

But it wasn't there.

She searched and searched.

She didn't want pity and, for once, she wasn't getting it.

Ashley was nodding, a look of understanding in her eyes and a little mischievous glint.

"I respect that, skipper."

Those four words had Alexis so happy she was ready to declare Ashley Williams her best friend for life and never look back. She didn't know whether to smile or cry or laugh or sing. She just stared at her, like she was some sort of angel of awesome, and she might have said 'cool' once or twice.

And then –

"So lemme get this straight: you _actually _wanted to be a farmer?"

After the surprise wore off, Alexis laughed. Of all the questions she could have asked, all the things she might have gotten out of her little summary of her past she'd chosen that. Hell, looking at where she was now, it _was _pretty funny.

"A _farmer_? I mean, _seriously_? What were you thinking?!"

Shepard popped open another bottle of beer, grinning. "Have another drink, Chief."


End file.
